Queensland gets a large slice of MLB history

by jspasaro

Josh Spasaro
Sports Journalist

I spent four years in country newspapers before taking on a dream role of covering national and international sports news across the entire APN network, in early 2012.
I learnt my trade in Kingaroy, Queanbeyan and Lismore doing it all – design, photography and headline writing.
I am now the envy of all my friends and family members, now that I have the privilege of covering Origin, Bledisloe Cups, footy grand finals and other top international sporting events.
Yes, I wouldn’t trade this job for...

BASEBALL: It was just a throwaway line, but it came from a major mover and shaker within The Big Show.

And that will lead to a large slice of the Major League coming to Brisbane next summer.

Well, visually, it's two large pieces of scenery from the MLB's Opening Series in Sydney, held last month, to be more precise.

Holloway Field is set to receive the two large foul poles used during last month's first ever MLB games that were played Down Under, between the LA Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The two planks of history from that highly-acclaimed series were acquired thanks to the foresight showed by the Windsor Royals, the club that shares the ground with the Australian Baseball League's Bandits.

Club president Mark Ready reached out to the ABL for the towering 15m poles, and he hauled them up the Pacific Highway to the venue through his company Ready Towing.

But it all started courtesy of a casual conversation between the ABL's manager of baseball operations and facility development, Dan Amodio, and Murray Cook, the MLB's head of facilities and projects.

Amodio, who has an impressive resume after working as a strategy volunteer for ballparks in the MLB, moved to Brisbane from Sydney, for three months before the start of last summer's ABL season in October.

He then devoted most of his time to getting Holloway Field up to scratch, with great results, after the Bandits relocated there from the RNA Showgrounds last season.

But Cook noticed something a little strange when he visited Amodio to assist him with his refurbishment plans.